Biden's Benghazi Moment

How the deadly Kabul AIRPORT ATTACK and bungled Afghanistan pullout could HAUNT HIS PRESIDENCY–and cost him the midterms.

- By Bill Powell

August 26 was “the worst day” of Joe Biden’s presidency, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki conceded. The problem for Biden and his party is that it wasn’t just a bad day, but a potentially defining one. As the U.S. raced to extract all Americans from Afghanistan by August 31—the deadline set by Biden—a suicide attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport killed 10 Marines, two Army soldiers, a Navy medic and more than 180 people overall. The devastating attack, which resulted in the deadliest day for the U.S. military in a decade, also seems likely to permanently scar the Biden presidency, branding it as dangerously incompetent.

In his speech to the nation hours after the attack, Biden described the dead as heroes who gave their lives “in the service of liberty, the service of security and the service of others. In the service of America, like their fellow brothers and sisters in arms who died defending our vision and our values, with the struggle against terrorism, on this day, are part of a great noble company of American heroes.” Biden also threatened retribution, saying, “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this—we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.”